Structural neglect costs Nigeria billions in cocoa and coffee earnings

Nigerian farmers are being systematically shortchanged in the global cocoa and coffee markets, earning significantly less than international prices due to persistent structural neglect and underdeveloped value chains, according to Comrade Adeola Adegoke, Global President of the Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Alliance Association of Africa (COCEFAAA).

Speaking at a stakeholders' meeting in Akure, Adegoke lamented that while millions of farmers worldwide build wealth from coffee, Nigerian producers are largely excluded from the booming global market. He highlighted that the global coffee market, valued at $284.8 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $486.2 billion by 2035, represents a strategic commodity with immense economic and social significance. "The question before us today is straightforward: why is Nigeria, a country blessed with the soil, climate and human capital to grow premium coffee, still on the margins of this enormous market?" he asked.

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Our farmers are being shortchanged, not because of laziness, but because of structural neglect.

Adegoke attributed Nigeria's poor performance to decades of declining investment in coffee cultivation. The country's coffee production, which stood at approximately 95,000 bags in the 1960s, has seen a steady annual reduction of 0.4 percent since 1995. Currently, Nigeria produces only 1,844 metric tonnes of unroasted coffee, with yields averaging just 500 kilogrammes per hectare, effectively disappearing from the global export market.

The consequences are stark: Nigeria recorded zero coffee export value in the first nine months of 2024 and ranks 147th globally in coffee exports, valued at a mere $59,900. This stands in sharp contrast to countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya, which have successfully developed thriving export industries around coffee, producing millions of bags annually.

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The question before us today is straightforward: why is Nigeria, a country blessed with the soil, climate and human capital to grow premium coffee, still on the margins of this enormous market?